Constitutional Assembly Elects Appointed to Council

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Constitutional Assembly Elects Appointed to Council

February 25, 2011 11:24Updated: January 30, 2014 20:16

The representatives of all parties but the Independence Party in the Althingi parliament’s committee which was appointed to decide how to react to the Supreme Court’s invalidation of the Constitutional Assembly election have determined that instead of a new election, the 25 elects should be invited to take a seat on a constitutional council.

The advance polling station in Laugardalshöll, Reykjavík. Photo by Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir.

They argue that even though the Supreme Court invalidated the election because of flaws in its execution, they didn’t doubt the democratic authority of the 25 candidates who received the most votes, Fréttabladid reports.

This method is simpler and less expensive than other options, they added, explaining that the constitutional council will serve a similar role as the Constitutional Assembly would have.

“It cannot be presumed that the victory of those who received the most votes in the Constitutional Assembly election is based on a solid foundation,” Professor Róbert Spanó, president of the University of Iceland legal department, told Morgunbladid in response to the committee’s decision.

“If politicians at Althingi decide to appoint the 25 elects to a committee or a council it must be based on conditions other than that they won the election that was deemed invalid,” he added.

“Most of us [the 25 elects] would like this work to continue. It is our unanimous opinion that whatever way we progress, our suggestions should be submitted to a national referendum before they are treated by the parliament,” commented Constitutional Assembly elect Ómar Ragnarsson.

“I’d like to point out that 74 percent of those who expressed their opinion on this issue in a recent survey would like the work to continue and an overwhelming majority wanted this way to be taken,” Ragnarsson said in reference to the referendum.

According to ruv.is, the majority of the 25 elects intend to accept the offer of a seat in a constitutional council. The newsroom had managed to contact 20 of the 25 elects; 14 thereof said they would accept the offer and six elects had yet to make up their minds.